1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hybrid card having an optical recording/magnetic recording region and an IC chip in its substrate, and to a recording/reproducing apparatus for recording/reproducing information to/from the hybrid card.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, information industries have been rapidly developed, and an amount of information to be dealt in has been increased. Due to this, IC cards, which can portably hold a large amount of information, and optical cards, may be in great demand as compared with magnetic cards, which are already widely used.
FIG. 19 shows a conventional apparatus for recording/reproducing data to/from the optical card. In this apparatus, a wire 216 is wound around the portion between two pulleys 210 and 215, and a wire 217 is wound around the portion between two pulleys 211 and 215. By these two wires 216 and 217, power of a motor 208 is transmitted to a moving guide member 206, and the moving guide member 206 is moved in a Y direction. In the moving guide member 206, a step motor 220 is provided, and power of the step motor 220 is transmitted to an optical head 218 by a wire 224 wound around the portion between pulleys 222 and 223. In this case, since the optical head 218 must be moved over the entire length of an optical card 202, it is difficult to miniaturize the apparatus.
The recording/reproducing apparatus for the optical card normally has a shuttle on which the optical card is mounted. The shuttle is reciprocated to an optical head and data recording/reproducing is performed. In the shuttle, a function of correcting a warp in the optical card is needed. Similar to the other cards, the optical card is easily warped since the card is put in a wallet or a commutation-ticket holder in carrying.
However, when the card is inserted into the shuttle and ejected from the shuttle, the warp correcting function works as resistance, and this causes an increase in load on the motor and abrasion of the card. Due to this, there is required the structure in which the warp correcting function is released at the time of the card insertion and ejection.
A shuttle having such a structure is disclosed in, for example, Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 2-144686.
Regarding the IC card, an IC terminal provided in the card and a contact terminal provided in the apparatus are brought into contact with each other to perform data recording/reproducing to/from the IC chip. For example, in an apparatus disclosed in Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 64-76291, when the card is inserted into the apparatus, the contact terminal of the apparatus contacts the IC terminal of the card. Then, when the card is ejected from the apparatus, the contact terminal of the apparatus is spaced from the IC terminal.
The above-mentioned optical card and IC card have merits and demerits, respectively. For example:
(1) The magnetic card can be manufactured at low cost and data can be erased. However, the recording capacity is small; PA1 (2) The IC card can be accessed at high speed, and the transferring rate is fast. However, the manufacturing cost is high per bit. Also, the IC chip included in the IC card is weak against static electricity; and PA1 (3) The optical card has a large recording capacity, and the manufacturing cost is low per bit. However, data cannot be rewritten.
In order to compensate for the above-mentioned demerits, a complex type card (hereinafter called a hybrid card) has been proposed, and this type of card is expected to make use of a new application.
FIGS. 20 and 21 show two examples of the hybrid card. In these examples, the outline of the card has the same size as the ordinary credit card. In the hybrid card of FIG. 20, an optical recording region 102 and an IC terminal 103 are formed on the same plane. In the hybrid card of FIG. 21, they are formed on the different surfaces, respectively.
In using the data recording card, it is easy to deal with the card if a plurality of data recording sections, which are the important part, are formed on the same plane. Also, it can be considered that the disadvantages such as a flaw in the data recording section and breakage of the data recording section lessen.
FIGS. 22 and 23 show a recording/reproducing apparatus for a hybrid card 121 having a shuttle. In a shuttle 104 on which the hybrid card 121 is mounted, a card base 105 is provided. On the surface of the card base 105, there are provided pressing members 106a and 106b pressing the portions other than an optical recording region 102 of the hybrid card 121. A push-up member 109 having a lever 108 at its one end is provided on the upper surface of the card base 105 and is supported by an elastic member 107. Two elastic members 110a and 110b are provided on one side surface of the card base 105. The push-up member 109 is pressed against the lower surfaces of the pressing members 106a and 106b. Also, the hybrid card 121 is pressed onto the other side surface of the card base 105 by the elastic members 110a and 110b. Thereby, the width direction of the card is positioned.
Moreover, a contact terminal 111 is provided in the pressing member 106a. The contact terminal 111 is arranged at the portion where the contact terminal 111 contacts an IC chip 103 on the card when the hybrid card 121 is sandwiched between the pressing members 106a and 106b. The lever 108 is pressed down by a pin 112. The pin 112 is driven by driving means (not shown). The lever 108 is displaced together with the push-up member 109 by the force of the elastic member 107.
At the time when the hybrid card 121 is inserted to the shuttle 104, the pin 112 is moved down by driving means (not shown), and the lever 108 and the push-up member 109 are pressed down against force of the elastic member 107. Under this state, rubber rollers 113a and 113b are rotatated. By this operation, the hybrid card 121 is sandwiched by the pressing members 106a, 106b and the push-up member 109, and the mounting state as shown in FIG. 23 can be obtained.
In this state, the IC chip 103 always contacts the contact terminal 111, and data can be recorded/reproduced to/from the IC chip 103. For recording/reproducing data to/from the recording region 102, the shuttle 104 is reciprocated along the longitudinal direction (X direction) of the hybrid card 121. The position of the light spot, which is irradiated from an object lens 123 of an optical head 122, is scanned by the reciprocating motion, whereby the recording/reproducing is performed in the optical recording region 102.
According to the above apparatus, since the contact terminal 111 is provided in the shuttle 104, the space for providing the contact terminal 111 must be ensured on the shuttle 104 to the hybrid card 101 shown in FIGS. 20 and 21. Moreover, this causes the weight of the shuttle 104 to be increased. Since the shuttle 104 is reciprocated together with the hybrid card when the hybrid card is recorded/reproduced, the increase in weight becomes a big problem.
Moreover, a cable 120 such as an FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit cable), FPC, which is used for the power supply to the IC chip 103 and data transmitting and receiving to the main body of the apparatus, must be extended from the shuttle 104 reciprocating in the direction of an arrow X to the side of the main body of the apparatus. Due to this, attention must be paid to durability of the cable 120, and a space for pulling about the cable 120 in the apparatus must be ensured.
Furthermore, the IC chip 103 of the hybrid card 121 and the contact terminal 111 reciprocate together with the shuttle 104 at the time of recording/reproducing to/from the recording region 102. Due to this, the IC chip 103 and the contact terminal 111 may be shifted during the reciprocating motion. Therefore, reliability of the recording/reproducing of the IC chip 103 becomes low.
On the other hand, in the case of the above-structured hybrid card 121, the optical recording region 102 must be formed in a region other than a predetermined region surrounding the IC chip 103. Also, the contact terminal 111 must be provided at the data position of the hybrid card 121 on the shuttle 104. Due to this, the arrangements of the optical head 122 and of the contact terminal 111 are largely restricted and the size in the height direction of the apparatus increased, in order to prevent interference with the contact terminal 111 and the optical head 122.